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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22977508">Three's Company</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene'>cyrene</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Family, and Other Traumatic Things [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Once Upon a Time (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fix-It, Found Families, Teen Pregnancy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 16:01:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,170</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22977508</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal offers August an alternative.<br/>Emma finds out she's pregnant.<br/>August sticks it out for once.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Baelfire | Neal Cassidy &amp; Pinocchio | August Booth, Baelfire | Neal Cassidy/Emma Swan, Pinocchio | August Booth &amp; Emma Swan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Family, and Other Traumatic Things [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651243</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>58</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>OUAT was a really good show, wasn't it? Too bad it only had, like, two and a half seasons.</p><p>Seriously, though, so canon was really inconsistent about characterization and redemption and all sorts of stuff, so I'm fixing some things. Like I have the right, or something. Let's see where this goes together, shall we? No, seriously, hold my hand. I'm gonna need it. I tend to get out of control with these things. (Ask the Zutara fandom.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They first met in a twice-stolen car.</p><p> </p><p>The car – an already elderly yellow VW bug – was parked on the street, and Neal was sleeping in the back when he heard the distinct sound of someone tampering with the door and getting in. Neal, who had always been slow to wake, did not move at first, trying to decide what the hell the procedure was for someone trying to steal your stolen car.</p><p> </p><p>She was beautiful, too, and that rendered him speechless for a moment. All long blonde hair and blue eyes narrowed with distrust and rimmed with thick black glasses. Neal had never believed in love at first sight – he had been alive too long for that – but all he knew was he wanted to be close to her. He wanted to learn everything there was to know about her, to get a Ph.D in her various telling facial expressions. She, despite living on the streets, still wore her heart on her sleeve, and he wanted to take care of that heart.</p><p> </p><p>He bought them hot chocolate – she took hers with cinnamon, which was weird enough for him to remember forever – and they walked around the city. He broke them into places (like the carousel) just to feel alone with her, to extend their time together.</p><p> </p><p>They were inseparable after that. They tied their fates together in that little yellow bug, and that was that. Neal was a goner for Emma Swan; he’d do anything for her, and he did. He lied, cheated, and stole. Perhaps the only thing he never did was tell her the truth about his past.</p><p> </p><p>Not that they didn’t talk about stuff like that. Emma was of the opinion that what’s past is passed, but it came up. It’s hard to conceal a nightmare when you’re sleeping in a car, and she would ask him what he dreamed that made him wake up in a sweat, panting for air.</p><p> </p><p><em>Neverland</em>, he would think. <em>Peter Pan and the Lost Boys</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“I used to be in a... kind of a gang, I guess,” he would say.</p><p> </p><p><em>The Dark One</em>, he would think,<em> murdering everyone in sight in my name</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“My father... was a difficult man to love,” he would say.</p><p> </p><p>She held him, then, like he was something precious and fragile. Something she wanted to keep. That, in and of itself, almost broke him apart, and he had to blink tears away.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll be your family,” she said to him in that strong voice of hers and, especially coming from her, it was better than hearing an “I love you”. Though that, too, came in time – he said that one first.</p><p> </p><p>Emma was a <em>Carpe Diem</em> sort of girl, and he loved that about her. He was a <em>Carpe Diem</em> sort of guy. But he refused to have their first time be on the street – not even in the back of the bug. Perhaps especially not in the back of the bug. It wasn’t either of their <em>first</em> first times, but it was their first time together, so he stole some shit and sold it and got a motel room. They took lengthy showers, then went to bed together, then took another lengthy shower together.</p><p> </p><p>And they made plans, oh, they made plans for the future. They were going to Tallahassee, which may as well have been El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. They were going to get real jobs and go straight.</p><p> </p><p>Them, the two of them, always together.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They first met in an alleyway.</p><p> </p><p>He was a couple of years older than Neal appeared to be – twenty-two or twenty-three. He drove a motorcycle with a typewriter on the back, because he was a writer and a wanderer. Like Neal’s namesake.</p><p> </p><p>He knew Neal’s real name.</p><p> </p><p>Neal heard him out, he did, even though every muscle in his body was screaming at him to run away. To grab Emma and get out of state, where this guy who knew things he shouldn’t would never find them again. But he listened instead, as August weaved a story about magic, and good and evil, and things Neal never thought he would have to deal with again.</p><p> </p><p>“What’s your real name?” Neal asked.</p><p> </p><p>“Pinocchio,” the man admitted with a little, knowing grin. Like he knew how ridiculous all of this was too. Probably saw his own movie, and Neal wondered how surreal that was for him.</p><p> </p><p>“Listen, Pinocchio. You know my name. You know who, and what, I’m running from.”</p><p> </p><p>“I know. That’s why you need to –”</p><p> </p><p>“No,” Neal said a little too firmly. “I’m not leaving her behind. That’s not what family does.” August tried again to formulate his argument, but Neal just shook his head. “How old were you when they sent you through that portal?” he asked. “How old were you when they abandoned you here?”</p><p> </p><p>August flinched. Gathered himself together again. Said, “I was six.”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s fucked up, dude. They left a six-year-old in charge of a baby in a strange world? Even my father’s not that cruel. Look,” he said, because he’d been thinking about the desperation in this man’s eyes the entire time they were talking, “I’ll give you that Emma needs to break this curse. And she’s gonna need help. That’s why I think you should come with us.”</p><p> </p><p>August started, his brown eyes wide with disbelief and distrust.</p><p> </p><p>“We have money,” Neal pressed on, “and a car, and we’re going to start a new life. We can take care of you. We have eleven years until Emma is supposed to break this curse.” He shrugged. “I’m sure we can think of something, with all that time.”</p><p> </p><p>He couldn’t tell if August was going to punch him or cry, but then the other man nodded, just once.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay,” August said. “I’ll come with you.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They first met in a crappy diner on the wrong end of Portland.</p><p> </p><p>They had money now, but Neal knew they needed to save as much as possible to start their new life, especially with three of them now. Emma looked surprised when he walked in with someone else, her pale eyebrows raising up to her hairline and her mouth pinched with lingering distrust of all adults.</p><p> </p><p>“August,” he said slowly, carefully, “this is Emma Swan. Emma, this is August W. Booth. We need to talk for a minute.”</p><p> </p><p>Neal kind of knew he was in some hot shit. He had offered for August to come with them without consulting Emma first, and that was not on. They did everything together, made all decisions together. He couldn’t explain to her why this one was different. Not without a whole lot of other explanations that she wasn’t ready for.</p><p> </p><p>“August,” he explained carefully, “if from my home... state. He’s met my father. He...”</p><p> </p><p>“I know who your parents are,” August said, a little too eagerly leaning forward.</p><p> </p><p>Emma frowned. “My... what?!”</p><p> </p><p>August looked down at his hands “I was the kid they found with you. I was supposed to stay with you, and I... I ran away.”</p><p> </p><p>“You were <em>six</em>,” Neal reminded him. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”</p><p> </p><p>Emma looked between them like they were crazy, and if she thought <em>this</em> was crazy, she was gonna have a hell of a time with the other stuff. But they had eleven years, Neal reminded himself. They had time.</p><p> </p><p>“I was hoping August could come with us to Tallahassee,” Neal said softly, looking at her with pleading in his eyes. “He’s got no family.”</p><p> </p><p>Emma’s eyes softened a bit. “You were abandoned with me?” she asked. “I guess that makes us kind of brother and sister, doesn’t it?”</p><p> </p><p>August looked up now, with hope in his eyes. “Does it?”</p><p> </p><p>Emma nodded. “Sure it does. But we have to have some ground rules. First, we all take care of each other, no matter what. Second, we’re all going straight from now on. We have plenty to last us while we figure it out. Third, we all get equal say in what happens. We all get a vote. The first thing we need to vote on is where we’re going.”</p><p> </p><p>“But I thought...?” Neal began, but Emma shook her head.</p><p> </p><p>“Tallahassee was you and me. August might not want it, and he gets a vote now too. August, were you headed anywhere before?”</p><p> </p><p>They discussed the merits of various cities and states, spent the night drinking coffee and laughing and getting to know each other. And that was their lives: before and after. They were in the after now, and it was looking pretty good so far.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“August,” Emma said quietly, “I need your help.”</p><p> </p><p>She couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t look at anything, really, her eyes were unfocused and staring out into the distance. She knew she needed to get it together, but she just couldn’t focus on anything.</p><p> </p><p>August was typing away on his latest novel and didn’t even look up, but he said, “Sure thing, Ems, what’s up?”</p><p> </p><p>Emma cleared her throat. Then he looked at her. “I have a doctor’s appointment, and I need... I can’t go alone. Will you come with me?”</p><p> </p><p>He frowned up at her from where he was sitting, pushed his chair back, and folded his hands together. “Are you sick?”</p><p> </p><p>“Um, I don’t think so,” she said. And, before she lost courage, she showed him the stick.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh,” August said. “<em>Oh</em>. Does Neal know?”</p><p> </p><p>Emma shook her head vehemently. “I didn’t want to tell him until I’d seen a doctor.”</p><p> </p><p>“How long... that is, how far...?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know. I’ve missed, like, four periods.” Emma could feel her lip wobbling when she said it, so she bit down on it.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay,” he said, putting hand on her arm. “Okay, Emma. Emma, okay. We can go. You and me.”</p><p> </p><p>They were in New York City. They took August’s bike down to the clinic, because Neal had the bug so he could go grocery shopping after work. Emma wondered if the vibrations were bad for the... thingy.</p><p> </p><p>The clinic was rundown and underfunded, but it was all they could afford. A nurse called her name and led them back to a sickeningly pink room with framed art of mothers breastfeeding on the walls. Emma, who did not cow easily, had never been so intimidated in her life. Never so seventeen and stupid.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, you’re definitely pregnant,” the doctor said cheerfully. She looked over to August. “And this is Daddy?”</p><p> </p><p>“Platonic lifemate,” August corrected her.</p><p> </p><p>“Roommate,” Emma said, rolling her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Ah,” said the doctor, visibly confused. “Well, you have options, you know, but since we have an ultrasound tech in today and you’re roughly sixteen weeks, I think it’s about time we get you in for one.”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay,” Emma squeaked.</p><p> </p><p>“Think of all the money you’ll save on condoms,” August whispered when the doctor left, and Emma couldn’t help but laugh.</p><p> </p><p>They stared at the screen together, watching the baby squirm in Emma’s uterus.</p><p> </p><p>“Wow,” August said, and Emma could have sworn she saw tears in his eyes. “That’s... definitely a baby.”</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Emma snarled. What was she going to do?</p><p> </p><p>“You have to tell him tonight,” August said when they got back to the apartment, like Emma didn’t already know.</p><p> </p><p>When Neal came home from work, he looked exhausted. It had been a long day at the tattoo parlor, he told them. He’d turned away a guy who wanted a swastika on his chest, which almost caused a literal fight, but Neal wasn’t about to make his money off hate symbols. His boss had backed him up, though, and that was nice.</p><p> </p><p>Emma was massaging Neal’s shoulders, which tended to get bunched up after a long day of leaning over people, and August was looking at her pointedly.</p><p> </p><p>“Neal,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, “we need to talk.”</p><p> </p><p>Neal’s shoulders tensed up again, and August winced. Yeah, that had been a poor choice of words. No one ever liked hearing, “We need to talk.”</p><p> </p><p>As Neal was saying, with a completely fake casual air, “Sure, babe,” Emma just blurted out, “I’m pregnant. With a baby.”</p><p> </p><p>Neal removed her hands from his shoulders and slowly turned around. “With a <em>baby</em>, Emma? Like, was there another option there?”</p><p> </p><p>Emma burst into tears.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, oh, Emma, come here,” he said, gathering her into his arms and holding her tight and murmuring sweet nothing words until she calmed down. “Tell me about it.”</p><p> </p><p>So she told him about the doctor’s appointment, and showed him the ultrasound.</p><p> </p><p>“What, uh, what’re you thinking?” he asked, his eyes suspiciously shiny.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” Emma said, shaking her head. “Rule three. This is a big one, boys. We have to make this decision together.”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s your body, Emma,” Neal pointed out, but she could tell he was trying to be supportive. He probably already had a list of names running through his brain.</p><p> </p><p>“And if it were your body?” she asked.</p><p> </p><p>“I’d keep it.” No hesitation.</p><p> </p><p>“August?”</p><p> </p><p>“Whoa,” August said, holding out his hands as if to push them away, “how is this even remotely my decision?”</p><p> </p><p>“Rule three,” Emma pointed out stubbornly.</p><p> </p><p>August took a lot longer to think about it than Neal had. They kept exchanging glances that Emma didn’t understand, and Neal was glaring.</p><p> </p><p>“Keep it,” August said finally. “We can handle it, together.”</p><p> </p><p>Emma nodded. “Okay, then. Okay. We’re going to have a baby, boys.”</p><p> </p><p>The three of them stayed up late that night, aggressively fighting about names and making budgets. But they did it <em>together</em>, and that was more than Emma could have ever hoped for. Maybe they were going to be okay.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>August and Emma were putting away the groceries they had just finished hauling up when everything went to hell.</p><p> </p><p>She had been feeling poorly all day, lots of cramping and her back hurt, and she thought a walk around the store might help, but it didn’t. Everything seemed to be feeling worse now, if that were possible.</p><p> </p><p>“Ems,” August said very carefully, because she’d been a mite sensitive lately, “I am <em>concerned.</em>”</p><p> </p><p>Emma glared at him from where she was reaching into the highest shelf of the cabinet. “About <em>what</em>, August?”</p><p> </p><p>“I think we should call Neal.” He said this very carefully too, because there was no way of knowing how she would react.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not having Neal miss a full day of work over some stupid Braxton-Hicks,” Emma informed him tartly as she grasped for, and finally grabbed, the box of hot chocolate mix.</p><p> </p><p>“They’re, like, ten minutes apart, though,” August pointed out. He and Neal had read all the books with Emma, and he knew this was probably a Big Deal. “We should probably call Neal and head down to the hospital.”</p><p> </p><p>“Call him, then,” Emma said, and she was still pretty angry about it, “but I’m not going to the hospital without him.”</p><p> </p><p>August told Neal this, word for word, and Neal probably broke about ten laws speeding home on August’s bike, because he was home in less than ten minutes. He burst into the apartment like a whirlwind to find Emma and August sitting on the couch drinking hot chocolate.</p><p> </p><p>“You two look... cozy,” he said suspiciously.</p><p> </p><p>At that moment, the next contraction came. Emma doubled over on the couch, wailing and gripping her belly. Neal looked terrified.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay,” August said, holding his hands up, “let’s all calm down and get in the car.”</p><p> </p><p>“YOU FUCKING CALM DOWN!” Emma shouted, gripping his arm with the strength of a hundred grown men.</p><p> </p><p>They managed to get her downstairs and into the back seat of the bug, Neal right behind her, leaving August to drive. That was probably for the best, he thought as he turned on the car, the radio suddenly blaring.</p><p> </p><p>“SUCKING ON MY TITTIES LIKE YOU WANTED ME, CALLING ME ALL THE TIME LIKE BLONDIE!”</p><p> </p><p>“AUGUST!” Emma and Neal shouted.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled, ejecting the CD. What were you supposed to play when you were on the way to the hospital to have a baby anyway? He didn’t think he had any Mozart.</p><p> </p><p>August put the emergency blinkers on and sped. Neal was trying to help Emma remember the breathing tricks they’d learned in Lamaze.</p><p> </p><p>When they got to the hospital, he parked by the emergency entrance and left the two of them in the car. He ran inside, up to the desk.</p><p> </p><p>“Emma...” he wheezed breathlessly, “baby...”</p><p> </p><p>It took him a minute to rearrange his words into something understandable, but when he did the nurses came out in full force, with a wheelchair. They brought a screaming Emma inside, with Neal running behind her.</p><p> </p><p>The staff weren’t going to let August in at first, but Emma and Neal both pitched a fit, so in he went. He stood on Emma’s other side, opposite Neal, while she had her death-grip on their hands, and they both assured her that she had this all under control.</p><p> </p><p>Some million and a half hours later, at nearly five o’clock in the evening, it was over. Emma gave one final, valiant push, and the doctor held up a squalling red bundle of baby. He asked if Neal wanted to cut the cord, and Neal almost fainted, so August politely suggested that the doctor do it instead.</p><p> </p><p>They brought the baby to the scale, nurses looking over every inch of him, then wrapped him up and brought him to Neal. Neal, who still looked a bit dodgy about remaining upright, sat on the edge of the bed, holding the baby while Emma delivered the placenta. Neal held him at an angle to Emma and August could see too.</p><p> </p><p>He had a pink scrunchy face, and the rest of him was wrapped in a blanket with pink and blue ducks on it, but August had seen a head of dark hair before they’d put a pink and blue striped hat on him. He pursed his little lips, as if judging them. It was kind of freaky.</p><p> </p><p>He was kind of perfect.</p><p> </p><p>“Henry,” Emma cooed, reaching a hand out to brush the baby’s soft cheek with one finger.</p><p> </p><p>They had argued for months, the three of them, over names. Emma had wanted Journey or Fate at first, but August and Neal – Pinocchio and Baelfire, respectively – both insisted they saddle the kid with a nice, normal name that wouldn’t get him beat up in the real world. If he had been a girl this would have been easier, because they’d all agreed on Faith. They’d ended up on a baby name website at the library, choosing almost randomly, though August thought Henry was a good choice for a little prince.</p><p> </p><p>The three of them stayed awake all night, that first night, too wired to sleep and just watching Henry sleep. August didn’t even think about going home and leaving the two of them alone. He was just as much a part of this as they were. That was the point of family.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>1. I know his name shouldn't be Henry, there's no reason for it to be, but I did it 1/3 so there wouldn't be any confusion and 2/3 because naming babies is HAAAAAAARD.</p><p>2. August has a habit of blaring inappropriate music in the bug and forgetting to turn it down before he gets out. I needed a song that would have been around "way back then" and "Fuck the Pain Away" by Peaches has been stuck in my head for LITERALLY A MONTH. Join me on the dark side.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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